How does a VC or Angel investor score your startup in their head? It's a checklist made up of ~10 broad topics. Want to know how you're going to score? Take the test in advance and learn what areas you need to improve before you give your pitch. Read More...

All businesses are different at launch and scale. The product(s) are different, sometimes the customers are different, but choosing how you make money at launch could determine if you scale the business or not! Some startup business models work only at Scale. Given that most startups have limited cash, staff, and other resources, it's important not to pick a model that doesn't work until you get to scale. How do startup revenue and business models compare at launch and scale stages of your company? Read More...

The Business Model Canvas is a great tool for startup founders. Developed by Alexander Osterwalder who authored the visually appealing book, Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design, the tool helps you check all of the boxes you need to consider in your startup strategy. There is also a "Lean Canvas" developed by Ash Maurya. The tool I end up defaulting to most ofter is https://leanstack.com/ Read More...

How do you value a startup company? That's a great question, especially in the early days and it can feel like you're selling a used car. It's only worth what you can sell it for, regardless of what you think it's really worth. Here are the approaches to traditional valuation methods: 1) Asset approach (you likely don't have much in the way of assets yet), 2) Income approach (you may have revenue, but don't have profits which equal income) and finally 3) Market approach - what are you comparable or comps.
This is where a 409A comes into play... Read More...